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I am truly overwhelmed with your gracious response to my reimurgence from my cybercave! Thank you so very much. 🙂

Well, a year has passed. It’s one of those situations where so much has happened that you can’t think of anything, you know? Like when you see someone you went to high school with and once you get past discussing where you work and whether you are married or have kids it kind of taps out. I’m sure I’ll remember odds and ends as time goes by.

In the more recent past (read, the last two weeks) those of us in the Pacific Northwest have been battered by Artic Blast 2008. No, sadly, I did not make that title up. I personally would have named it Average But Debilitating Snowfall That Almost Ruined Christmas, but whatever. What it amounted to was real winter weather, Midwest style, in a region otherwise unprepared for it. We had snow, ice, freezing rain, the whole shabang. What we didn’t have were enough plows, salt, or snow shovels. In our community of 30 homes, one person had a shovel. As a Minnesotan, I was pretty disappointed with myself. But I was pleased with my giant container of sea salt from, where else, Trader Joes. My second post in and already a Joes plug! I can’t help it, I love them! I used the sea salt to salt the ice off of our porch and it worked perfectly.

We didn’t have a shovel, but we needed to get out of our house. Desperate times call for innovative answers.

Being that Portland screeches to a halt when there is weather, I spent most of the last two weeks telecommuting. Telecommuting is beautiful on two fronts- 1.) I get so much more done because the only distraction I have is throwing a sparkily pompom ball for Ravi to fetch and 2.) because my work-from-home computer is a laptop, I can work and throw together some baked goods at the same time.

Such as this Chocolate and Vanilla Cream Pear Galette. This has been one of my absolute favorites so far.

Chocolate and Vanilla Cream Pear Galette

Favorites for what you might ask? Well, if you’re going to twist my arm I’ll tell you. I was contacted by a publisher this fall about publishing the recipes from my old book for reals, but updated and expanded and with tons of new recipes (50+). How can a girl say no to that? We are still hammering out the title, but in the meantime I have been baking like there’s no tomorrow and it’s been a blast.

The road to diabetes is no doubt paved with cookies, cakes, breads, pies, and all sorts of goodies. I’m trying to start some damage control, and I need to clean up our food habits to compensate for all of this. It’s been difficult, as I’m also working and going to school when I’m not baking, so convenience has been key and Jim is still mastering how I like my instant oatmeal. Any superfast healthy food suggestions that are also cost-effective?

Is there anything cuter than little kitty footprints in the snow? Linus is from Minnesota, too, and the snow was calling him, so on the first day of snow, we took him out for a little stroll.

This isn’t terribly eventful, but it’s pretty darn cute- a video Jim put together of Linus exploring the freshly fallen snow while Bindhi plans her revenge from inside the house.

I hope the last day of the year ends on an upswing, sending you into 2009 on a high note. This is going to be a tough year for everyone, I think, but cookies and community will see us through!